Modernism

Beautifully written, wide-ranging and psychologically acute, Modernism: The Lure of Heresy is a celebration of the subversive energies that decisively transformed art and culture in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At once bracingly intelligent and elegiac, Gay's magisterial book is richly rewarding for anyone who wants to understand the fractured world we have all inherited -- Stephen Greenblatt
Superbly researched and well recounted. The extent to which many [modernists] "sold out" to their wealthy patrons, adopting the values they once scorned, makes for some engrossing reading * Scotsman *
Highly readable, well-illustrated...an intelligent and exciting account of creative individuals and the times in which they worked... An enormous achievement * New Statesman *
An exhaustive and lively summary -- James Urquhart * Financial Times *
Written... with a polymathematical verve which carried me with him to the end -- Nicholas Bagnall * Sunday Telegraph *
An absorbing account of how international artistic rebellion became mainstream and lucrative -- Christopher Hirst * Independent *
Peter Gay has outdone himself. In his hands Modernism adds up to more than the sum of its subversive, sensational, unsettling parts. This is cultural history of the highest magnitude, a work as astute in its analyses as it is massive in its ambition. And as ever, it is written with stunning lucidity. A splendid, invigorating achievement -- Stacy Schiff
A wonderful book. You can be sure that students and journalists and teachers will be stealing from Modernism for years to come. Bravo! -- Hilton Kramer